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17 - Student Research Spotlight: From dunes to roadways with Ian Day and Tashae Thompson
5 Plays5 months ago
In this episode of Going Coastal, Jon Miller and Deb Fernandes have a chat with PhD student Ian Day (Stevens Institute of Technology) and master’s student Tashae Thompson (University of South Alabama) for a new Student Research Spotlight series. They talk about their paths into coastal engineering, from Jamaica to China to New Jersey.
Hear how they’re tackling real-world challenges like dune erosion and flooding with nature-based solutions, and what it’s like to navigate conferences and careers in this tight-knit field.
Thank you to NJ Sea Grant for sponsoring this episode.
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Transcript
Introduction to Going Coastal Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome back to the Going Coastal podcast, the podcast of the students and new professionals in the coastal field, hosted by John Miller, Marissa Torres, and Deb Fernandez. I'm one of your co-hosts, John Miller. And hello, I'm the other co-host, Deb Fernandez.
Student Research Spotlight: Ian Day & Tasha Thompson
00:00:24
Speaker
For this month's episode, we have another round of our student research spotlights. With us today, we have Ian Day, PhD student from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Tasha Thompson, a master's student at the University of South Alabama. We'd like to welcome Ian and Tasha.
00:00:41
Speaker
Nice to have you. Hi, thanks for having us. Hello, nice to be here. so With all of our guests, I think the first thing that we always do is just try to get a little bit better sense of who they are, where they've come from, kind of an open-ended question.
00:00:53
Speaker
Feel free to be as expressive, talk about the coastal stuff, talk about the non-coastal stuff, whatever. It's just to get our audience a feel for who we're talking to today. So Ian, I'll start with you.
00:01:04
Speaker
so who are you? I am starting my fourth year PhD, which is hard to believe, with the I don't know if you've heard of him. John Miller is my advisor. ah came into this field to study living shorelines. And and John, you you pulled me into of the beach side with the storm impacts and stuff. So I've been doing that, but also trying to bring a sort of living shorelines inspired element to it in the long run.
00:01:31
Speaker
ah I don't know. Yeah, that's that's a very brief summary. Where'd you come from? ah So I'm New Jersey, you know, born and raised ah from South Jersey actually, um which is a ah big distinction.
00:01:42
Speaker
not not up here in North Jersey where hope where ah Stevens is, you know, totally different state. So I did mechanical engineering for my undergraduate degree. And then after a few years of work, and I decided I wanted to do something related to more nature based something, which wasn't much of a thing in mechanical engineering. So that's how I got into ah this kind of civil offshoot of of coastal engineering.
00:02:03
Speaker
Yeah, you you can tell Ian's from South Jersey, because he doesn't quite have the Jersey accent. That's right. you're with the enemies, right? ah Yes. If I understood how it works out there.
00:02:14
Speaker
I'm trapped up here in North Jersey and in the New York City area, and I'd much rather be in the Philadelphia area. Ouch. We still, it's you know, it's it's it's ah it's a touchy subject. We used to, you know.
00:02:27
Speaker
When the students wear their Philadelphia Eagles and Sixers and Phillies hats and stuff to school as a Yankee, Yankee, Jets, Knicks fan, it hurts a little bit inside, but I just take points off on their exams when they do that. So it's all good. Yeah, go birds.
00:02:44
Speaker
All right, Tasha, I would like to, we'd like to get to know you as well. So why don't you give us a little bit of your history and kind of who you are, how you got into Coastal. Hi, I'm Tashay Thompson. I'm from Jamaica.
Tasha Thompson's Journey in Coastal Engineering
00:02:58
Speaker
i happened into coastal. I was actually planning to do an undergrad. I knew I wanted to do engineering. um I was planning to do environmental engineering, but I was looking for scholarships and someone had posted something about a coastal engineering scholarship. And I was like, I've never heard of that.
00:03:17
Speaker
um And so I did some research. I'm like engineering at the beach. That sounds like fun. um and so I applied and I got through. i did four years.
00:03:30
Speaker
Well, I spent five years in China doing my bachelor's in harbor, coastal, and waterway engineering. um And I did one year of the language and then I left and I was working as a coastal consultant for about four years.
00:03:46
Speaker
And I was like, there's still more to know, more to learn. And so I'm back to do my master's um with my advisors, Dr. Webb. um And my current research is on the flooding of coastal roads and how nature-based solutions can help to mitigate those flooding. So it's ah it's a NOAA project and the project area is in New Hampshire.
00:04:09
Speaker
I'm specifically focusing on Rye, New Hampshire. So that's what I'm doing now. And I have to say... To Shea Learn Mandarin. It blew my mind when she told me that she studied in China because, yeah, we have the same supervisor i as you probably understood. But, yeah, it blew my mind. I think it's amazing.
00:04:26
Speaker
Wow. It's really it's really ah an interesting story, of kind of roundabout, you know, coming Coming to the U.S. to study coastal engineering by way of China and Jamaica, you know, it's it's interesting. I always find it interesting when we have guests on that have similarities, but also differences, right? So I think in this case, it's really interesting.
00:04:46
Speaker
I guess I was going to say Ian took more of a linear path, like being from New Jersey, did his undergrad in New Jersey, is doing his master's and did his master's and is doing his PhD in New Jersey. You took a ah slight detour to do that mechanical engineering thing, which is like an evil brand of engineering. We don't like to talk about them.
00:05:02
Speaker
No, it's cool. It's cool. It's fun. Well, okay. If you think so. Anything non-coastal and non-coastal engineering for John is evil.
00:05:15
Speaker
ah Civil engineering is not bad. It's just the mechanical. is this that Maybe it's the mechanical civil rivalry that I think is what inspires my comments sometimes. Someone's got to be able to work on the jet ski and understand how it works.
00:05:27
Speaker
fair Fair point. He's very useful. He does have a skill set, which makes him extremely, extraordinarily useful with us. But yeah, and then, Tashay, you took this, you know, more circuitous path to to get t to where you are so far.
00:05:43
Speaker
um I'm just curious, Tashay, is your intent to go back to Jamaica and practice in the Caribbean or, know, do you have other plans? I'd like to get some work experience first, um some additional work experience just to work on different projects because coming from a small island, um I don't see a lot of different types of projects. So like we don't have inlets.
00:06:06
Speaker
um I don't do like works on canal. We don't do dredging work, stuff like that. So just being able to get a more rounded experience, I think, because I'm interested in all things on things coastal. like I think some people might expect me to at this point know like a specific um channel or path, but I feel like everything in coastal is interesting. So I'd love to get like more experience, like a more rounded experience.
00:06:34
Speaker
I'm kind of fascinated. So Ian, we're not going to talk to you anymore. We're just going to talk to Shay. That's fine. yeah No, we yeah I think Ian knows this. we've talked we We've discussed this internally amongst our group. we've you know We do obviously nature-based solutions stuff as well in New Jersey, and we deal a lot with oyster reefs, and that's kind of our our typical nature-based solution. But we've had some interaction with actually some faculty at the university of the West Indies, um Deborah, Deborah Villarreal lamb, I think can't pronounce the name on the spot, but, um, but I was actually invited to a symposium, uh, where the, ah just the general concept of nature-based solutions in the Caribbean was discussed. And, you know, why aren't they, um why aren't they used as much? Why isn't it as popular of a a technique? And, um I can't remember specifically who, but there was a presentation,
00:07:30
Speaker
about Jamaica and the use of mangroves and situations with mangroves and mangroves actually trapping um waste actually in the the roots of the mangroves. And it was like a litter kind of a problem and it was actually killing some of the mangroves. And it so it was kind of like a fascinating thing to learn about. And you know it it was interesting to learn about the problems of you know uptake of nature-based solutions in Jamaica. So would be great. You can go back there and you can you can you can fix the entire problem. That's that's that's your responsibility.
00:08:05
Speaker
That was kind of like one of my um my thoughts going into this. I'm just like, I'm a tree hugger in a way. um And so i always see these hard structures on the shoreline like that were built from before I was born to know. And we haven't really evolved into using nature-based solutions, which is one of the reasons why I um i chose this research topic um so that I'd have better experience with like,
00:08:32
Speaker
modeling it, implementing it, and finding ways to incorporate it because I feel like it's one of those things that's a lot better, well, obviously a lot better for the environment, um and it's generally more self-adaptable.
00:08:47
Speaker
and so i I'm glad that my research topic is something that I'd probably be able to um use the knowledge that I'm learning now to go back and hopefully we'll see some greener shorelines.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I know, i mean, ian as well. I mean, that's a, it's something that is, pat Ian's very passionate about. As Ian mentioned, I know he said he started with ah nature-based solutions and then we kind of pulled him more into the open coastal environment. But, you know, I'm sure we'll hear about it and little bit more later, but ah Ian's,
00:09:22
Speaker
ah Ian's still committed to taking, i guess what we would call something that straddles traditional coastal engineering and nature-based solutions and really thinking about the ecological aspects of it. So although again, very vastly different ways you've gotten where you are and different places that you're studying, I think you're both passionate about nature-based solutions, which is, you know I think really, really cool to see.
00:09:49
Speaker
You were saying, Tashay, that the projects that you see in Jamaica are always very similar. And i wanted to ask, what are those projects, those coastal projects? So as John mentioned, there are mangroves there. So I was guessing probably a lot of mangrove projects. But are there anything else?
00:10:06
Speaker
You were saying hard structures as well. Okay, so like I think about... I'd say like upwards of the coastal projects are probably going to be revetments and
Coastal Projects in Jamaica
00:10:17
Speaker
seawalls.
00:10:18
Speaker
And then you might have a couple dunes mixed in, a couple trowels for mangroves, but they're not usually the only method. It's usually like a hybrid with something else just because we're um always in the path of hurricanes, right? So...
00:10:34
Speaker
no matter which year you have mangrove planting, like we know there is this period where they're vulnerable. So we usually have some sort of hard structure that's paired with that, that just in case it doesn't survive like the initial planting stage.
00:10:49
Speaker
um But yeah, it's mostly revetments. The softest, the most frequent soft structure or soft measure that you'd see would probably be beach nourishment. um But that's about it.
00:11:00
Speaker
Cool. Thank you. Sure. So I think what might be interesting is for our audience to kind of learn a little bit more about kind of how you got pulled into the coastal. You both touched on it in your intros, but maybe we'll start with Ian.
00:11:18
Speaker
How, when was it that you realized that you wanted to do coastal? Why was it? How was it? And I guess, how did you find how did you find out that you could do coastal engineering as a as ah as a career? So I'll start back in back in college, I guess, when I was doing the mechanical stuff at Rowan.
00:11:42
Speaker
So I had like a nice summer study abroad thing in Berlin, Germany. So i you know it's not 100% New Jersey. There's a little bit of extra flavor in there. ah So in Berlin, I took this class that was basically all about like different ways of like urban greening. Like they talked about, it was basically just an elective for me. It was fun. um They talked about green roofs and urban farming and ah like aquaculture and or aquaponics more specifically.
00:12:12
Speaker
And um like just using grassy ah streetcar tracks instead of, you know, concrete, whatever, like all sorts of just like anywhere you can like shoving extra green stuff into a city.
00:12:24
Speaker
So that was like my first exposure to just the general idea of doing any engineering with nature, green infrastructure stuff, generally speaking. So that's that's ever since that class, it was always like in my mind of like, that's something really cool. And I would love to figure out how to do that someday. But like, what you know, I wasn't in the right field, even though I liked what I was doing. It was like, that was that was something else that other people do.
00:12:46
Speaker
um So then after working for a couple of years, and just getting tired of of straight up office work. And I was like, I had a job where I'm working in clean rooms. So I'm like, I'm getting suited up in these like funny lab coats and wearing masks and stuff and gloves and touching all these like super sensitive parts that like, you know, if they get shocked, they break or whatever. And it's like it's, you you know, for a lot of people, that's super cool. For me, it was just kind of like annoying. And I was like, I'd rather be like getting dirty than getting ultra clean in in work. So
00:13:18
Speaker
some i think i literally it's it i think i literally just looked up like and nature engineering like i probably like googled it or something just put in like nature engineering or something like that and somehow i found like uh I think I found like the engineering with nature army core program and that's all, you know, coastal engineering, like living shorelines type projects where they talk, ah you know, they talk about all that stuff.
00:13:42
Speaker
So that's, that, that was like my exposure to first, what even is coastal engineering? Cause I had never heard of it before that. And then, so when I was already thinking of like green infrastructure in like an urban context, now i was learning about it in the coastal context.
00:13:56
Speaker
And I was like, well, I love the shore, you know, I, new jersey we go to the shore all the time in the summer and stuff so i always loved going to shore and i always wanted to spend more time at store so i was like wait second and i can do this green infrastructure thing at the coast which is where i'd want to be so that's that's how i found out about it and then uh looked around for schools and found john's group and john talked about field work a lot on his websites or whatever i was looking at and i was like well that's what i want to do coastal field work The question is, did you also find the South Alabama program? And, you know, did did we beat out Dr. Webb's program? or I only looked local. i'm loyal. i went as I went as far north as here, Stevens Institute of Technology, and as far south as the University of Delaware.
00:14:37
Speaker
And then... In between, I think I was looking at non-coastal programs at like Rutgers and Villanova. The heck with them. See, Brent had no chance. so Yeah, that was good it's good. Always good to hear.
00:14:49
Speaker
Brent gets to not international students. Yeah, yeah. We have an international student too. Pouya. Okay, okay. So just it just so just to, just Ian had to throw in there the shore just to prove that he is from New Jersey. So like North Jersey, South Jersey, it doesn't matter.
00:15:05
Speaker
The beach to us is the shore. Like just, you know, that's, that's i think that's somewhat unique to New Jersey. So he he proved he he proved his worth. he's's he's he's He's good now.
00:15:15
Speaker
That's right. But that's pretty, it it is pretty crazy to me that you were born and raised, like you lived your whole life in New Jersey and you only heard about coastal engineering after you Googling it.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah. Like yeah you had to Google it by yourself to find about it. And that's kind of crazy for me because New Jersey is mostly coast. So yeah, I feel like our communication is bad there. What are we doing? What's going on? This is one of the things that we talk about all the time on this program is that like you know we we have a marketing issue. like We have a problem in that like we have a bunch of really cool people doing really cool work in really cool environments and nobody knows about it. It's kind of like so many people stumble on it by accident. Ian's first spark you know happened in Germany. like why like He grew up in New Jersey. He grew up going to the shore.
00:16:12
Speaker
Like, how do we not know? And how do we, you know, especially, you it's somewhat embarrassing for a university in New Jersey, right? An engineering university in New Jersey, right? We should be out in front of this. Like we should capture students like Ian, you know, as he's looking for a bachelor's degree, like, hey, you're interested in mechanical or civil, or, hey, we have ocean engineering, coastal engineering.
00:16:33
Speaker
It's really cool. And kind of get that foot in the door earlier, but we we we fail in in doing that, not just at Stevens, but I think More broadly, you know just as a coastal profession, we kind of wait for people to fall into us instead of more actively seeking out really good, bright students to to come do what we do. We're so cool.
00:16:55
Speaker
There can't be too many of us. yeah Yeah. i need It's good thing there's not too many because the position was open here for me to come when I wanted to come. There you go. Actually, we're we're actually nailing our marketing.
00:17:09
Speaker
right So again, Tashay, you touched on it, but maybe want to expand a little bit about kind of how you, you know, got into Coastal or recognized that you could do it at for a living?
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah. So um for me at Coastal, i i was introduced to it luckily pretty early on in my academic career. Yeah. So it's not, as you're mentioning, like it's not one of those things that like that's widely broadcasted.
00:17:37
Speaker
um i know there are German, there are like two major universities where you can do civil and then like towards the end of the the program, then you'd have a coastal course and that would be the intro. But luckily for me, when I was searching for environmental programs, um I actually came across a post to do coastal engineering in China.
00:18:00
Speaker
And that's how I was initially introduced to coastal engineering. Did some research on it. I was like, that looks pretty cool. That looks right up my alley. um And so I applied and the rest is history. so This is so sad. This is so sad. One student from Jamaica and another from New Jersey with beautiful, wonderful coastlines.
00:18:24
Speaker
And one finds out about coastal in Germany and the other goes to China to learn about it. And like, oh my God, where do we go from here?
00:18:35
Speaker
Oh my goodness. um I'm kind of curious. What did they talk about in China and coastal engineering? Yeah. So the program that I studied in, was at hoai university in nanj china um and so it was the My bachelor's is in harbor, coastal, and waterway. So it covered all of the above.
00:18:55
Speaker
So it wasn't just like along the the shoreline, like the regular ocean coast. It was like river coastline, river shorelines, et cetera.
00:19:06
Speaker
So it covered like a broad range of coastal environments. Pretty cool. So i think that's, I mean, we're here to talk about a student research spotlight. these these These episodes are always my favorite to do because a I love interacting with students. That's why I'm a professor.
00:19:24
Speaker
and just love hearing about the really cool and exciting research that's happening, ah you know, just all over the place. So, um, I think we'll just start with a really broad question and say, Hey Ian, what
Researching Dune Erosion
00:19:41
Speaker
do you research? I researched dune erosion in the most simplistic terms.
00:19:46
Speaker
Um, so researching episodic erosion storm events and how ways you can maybe try and forecast how that causes dune erosion or how much dune erosion to expect.
00:20:00
Speaker
Um, And why do we care about dunes? Because dunes are, you know, they're, they're a good soft structure for protecting our coastal communities.
00:20:10
Speaker
And if you can predict when a dune will fail in a storm, you can get some indication of when you're going to have damages upland of that dune coming from the ocean side. And the way I spin it with living shorelines is I try to In my efforts to help develop some easy to use storm forecasting models of dune erosion, in those efforts, I'm ultimately working towards having something that can apply to complex systems, complex dune systems that look more like natural dune fields rather than just the engineered structures we have.
00:20:45
Speaker
So that if you wanted to have a more complex naturalistic design of your beach and dune system rather than art you know our our typical trapezoidal templates that we that we use all along the New Jersey coast.
00:20:59
Speaker
um If you wanted to have something that looked a little more naturalistic and hopefully would have more value to different kinds of wildlife, like all our piping clovers and different endangered plants and whatever's going on over there that the ecologists tell us we need to protect.
00:21:12
Speaker
If you wanted to consider those in your design, you could do that and still predict the performance of that dune, even though it's a much more complicated looking system. That's a nice, that's a, that's a nice summary. I spent the day today talking with many self-described bird nerds, which is a term that I hadn't heard yet, but I thought was kind of funny. So we like us engineers, I've heard the term engine nerd to describe engineers. Right. So I was like, I love the way that we can all kind of make fun of ourselves in a little bit of a, of a way.
00:21:47
Speaker
um But one of the main talking points was about, you know specifically with oyster catchers, different type of bird, um how to make the make the beach environments more amenable to oyster catchers. And you know personally, as somebody who works in nature-based solutions, i always find it interesting when you talk with the ecologists, right? We have yeah all kind of, we we we me do nature-based solutions projects and we certainly consider the ecology, but none of us are
00:22:20
Speaker
ecologist by training. So it's always fascinating to learn about the different bird species and the different um needs that they have. And so it's complicated.
00:22:32
Speaker
Also, so like as a just ah an aside, I heard today about oyster catchers and GPS trackers and the fact that they have solar powered backpacks that they put on oyster catchers to like track them. And I was like,
00:22:45
Speaker
that's really freaking cool. Like as as an engineer, i was like, you know, and nothing to do with coastal engineering, but I was just like, this is so cool. I thought Ian would get a kick out of that.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, that is cool. I didn't know they could do that. You know, I would always think like they're so, I guess they like carry food and stuff, but I would always think they're like so sensitive to how much weight is on them. Yeah.
00:23:07
Speaker
That's cool. There's some constraint like based off of like their weight, like it can only be like some... I mean, the number was like, I think it was like less than 5% of their body weight or something. I'm trying to work out like how you get the electronics like to be that because birds don't weigh anything. So like, I mean, they're like, I mean, it's gotta be like, it was insane. I was like, this is just really cool though.
00:23:29
Speaker
Specifically as it relates to your research, um you know, learning about the different needs in terms of um habitat, like in terms of, you know,
00:23:41
Speaker
you know, for shelter and for foraging and the different needs and the different types of beaches, you know, and the need to, for specific like designs to be able to iterate easily, um you know, and make decisions and in a way that, you know, precludes using really complicated, you know, physics-based models like Xbeach and those types of things. And i was like, hey, I've got the perfect PhD student for you to talk to, to ian So,
00:24:11
Speaker
We'll be kind of kind of putting you in contact with that that person later. i have a question though. Sure. You mentioned complex dune system. So what does make a complex dune system? I know you mentioned birds and foraging animals. So what I mean by that is rather than just but like like all our engineered dune systems ah in New Jersey, and probably all the ones the core do around,
00:24:39
Speaker
country, at least, it's like you have like a flat beach, and then you have this like perfectly trapezoidal foredoon, and then nothing behind it or whatever's behind it doesn't really matter. Most of the time, most of the time when you need to do these engineered beaches is because there's houses right there, you know, you you don't have, you don't have a super wide, expansive natural beach, that's why you need to play sand in the first place.
00:25:01
Speaker
um So the idea is, what if instead of having that one, like, a very simple way to think about it is Could you get ah similar engineering performance out of two small dunes instead of one big dune is kind of the most simple way to think about it. If, if those two small dunes with like the trough between them and stuff, uh, had more ecological benefit for whatever reason, um they provided more habitat for different.
00:25:30
Speaker
Birds and plants and stuff. Um, so then you could maybe be fulfilling some ecological goals in addition to just building a big protective engineering dune. So. It's how can you how can you adjust the design to have more complex features rather than just a single four dune, like multiple dunes in a field, rolling more rolling, hummocky is a word I see all the time.
00:25:51
Speaker
um How can you do that and then still quantify the engineering performance in a way that can help you in like a, kind of a top level design, like a preliminary design level.
00:26:03
Speaker
That's really cool. Thank you. And, uh, I guess to shade, do you want to go into the nitty gritty of your research.
NOAA Project on Nature-Based Solutions
00:26:11
Speaker
Okay, so I wouldn't be doing my research justice if I didn't give like a broad overview of the larger project. um So it's a NOAA project, NOAA funded project in collaboration between University of South Alabama, University of New Hampshire and Auburn University.
00:26:30
Speaker
um And the aim of that project is to develop a toolkit that will help policymakers to determine or to essentially guide decision-making as it relates to coastal protection, particularly the protection of roadways, because we've seen where roadways have had degraded or reduced performance as a result of coastal flooding, um surges, erosion, and all of that.
00:27:00
Speaker
um And so my portion of this would be to do the actual coastal modeling. um So I simulate extreme events under different sea level rise scenarios to see how that impacts the flooding duration and the frequency and the like flood levels of magnitude on the roadways. And then the main focus is to see how and if nature-based solutions are able to actually reduce that flooding, so the flooding levels, duration, and magnitude.
00:27:36
Speaker
um and if not, well, it would be mostly nature-based solutions and also possibly hybrid solutions, et cetera. So that's the gist of what I am working on. So as somebody who does nature-based solutions and interacts with traditional engineers, property owners, departments of transportation, et cetera, how would you answer somebody who says,
00:28:04
Speaker
um That's that's BS, like nature based solutions can't protect roadways and things of that nature. I don't necessarily believe that, but like, I think that's kind of like some of the ah pushback that, you know, we would hear generally in New Jersey if.
00:28:21
Speaker
we were to if we propose something like a nature-based solution? How would you respond to it Well, that exactly is what I'm trying to prove. um So these models aren't just willy-nilly. like We have to validate them, um calibrate, validate, um and verify. And so I'll literally have the have the data to be like, look, um this is what the numbers are saying. In most cases, if you're dealing with the public, like case studies I find work best.
00:28:49
Speaker
um So showing them like it actually worked at this other location. um Your site is pretty similar. So I'm pretty, we we're pretty sure. And then ah of course having the models to, um to, to kind of verify or validate what you're seeing to be like, it it's, it is actually able to work.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah. i think that's like, that's the, that's kind of, that's the direction that is kind of the answer I was hoping that you were, you were going to give, right? Because, you know I think the having that that that engineering a basis or science basis to show that these projects can work, I think is it's important. And those case studies. you Case studies is actually another really important thing that you you brought up, I think.
00:29:35
Speaker
You know, it's only by so people are just generally
00:29:40
Speaker
there when something is new, they're, you know, they're a little bit reluctant to believe, you know, until they can actually see it or you can prove it. And I think that's something that, you know, certainly that Dr. Webb's lab as well as you know, our group at Stevens, like that's one of the things that we're focused on is to prove that these things can work in a variety of different conditions and understand where they work and and understand also that they don't work everywhere. Right. So like what conditions do they not work?
00:30:07
Speaker
Right. um And I do find that um Sometimes as engineers, because we're used to looking at like model outputs and stuff like that, um we are able to look at the results like a result map and know exactly what it's saying.
00:30:21
Speaker
But if you bring it to the general public, they might not understand. And so I find... Like just being able to bring across that information in a way that's more digestible to them because we can be like, oh, these are the velocities and this is then that. But they don't know what that translates to in real life.
00:30:38
Speaker
So just being able to help with that. um And then I think also like visual representation, so like physical models also. are generally good to help so like they can see before and after to see exactly what we're predicting to happen. um So I think with the public, like visual aids and case studies are like the way to go. better I was about to mention the the physical models. I was about to mention sometimes we do some demo in our different labs or different wave flume. Tishay and I have participated in that for, for example, high schoolers.
00:31:14
Speaker
um They come to the University of South Alabama and we show them what we do in our lab. And we have, for example, different things they can put inside of the bid the big basin or the wave flume.
00:31:26
Speaker
And it's sometimes like concrete blocks or something mimicking seagrasses oyster bags, it about oyster shell bags. And usually they're like, they start by putting just big walls and it just doesn't work. Descent under just the roads and we're like, okay, try and use nature with it. And it's so much more like visual as you were saying for them. And then they understand it like, okay, nature can actually help.
00:31:49
Speaker
And like, even for hybrid stuff, like putting them together kind of a makes them stronger in a way. So yeah, those physical demos are so really, really cool way to show the public.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah, they do work. Yeah. Yeah, I think this goes back to the discussion we were having earlier about communication and about us not doing as a generally as a profession, not doing a great job of advertising for our profession, but you know that's communication you know in one sense, but you know communicating the results of different projects. I think that's one of the other failures that we have.
00:32:26
Speaker
um
00:32:29
Speaker
and the outreach and the education piece is, is really important if we're ever to kind of like overcome some of these hurdles. so you mentioned, um you mentioned models, physical models as kind of one way. I don't know, Ian, if, you know, anything has come up in your work in terms of being able to like communicate results. Actually, I know something has come up in your work.
00:32:53
Speaker
Maybe talk a little bit about, um you know, some of the, you know website development stuff that you know is relevant to the storm erosion work that you're doing and kind of how that maybe is something that will hopefully help people visualize the or understand the importance of like dunes and beaches.
Storm Erosion Index Discussion
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah. so So stuff you and previous students and your previous professors and stuff all worked towards was the storm erosion index. which is, you know, an index for predicting the erosional intensity of a storm, like, you know, in a hurricane, we're not the, the Saffir Simpson wind scale for us.
00:33:37
Speaker
You know, when we're looking at beach erosion, doesn't really mean that much, you know, we care more about the erosional forces, which, you know, most simply comes down to the water levels and the waves. Uh, so the storm erosion index is like a measure of that during a storm.
00:33:52
Speaker
Um, so. We've been trying, we've been working towards getting a nice interface that forecasts storms in real time, where we can have a ah little website that ah displays kind of the input data of it, but just, you know, we we pull in a wave forecast, we pull on a water level level forecast, and then we display those as like a time series.
00:34:15
Speaker
And then you calculate the storm ocean index with that data, and then you can display a time series of that instantaneous erosion intensity, how at every time point of the storm, how much erosional forcing is it putting on the beach?
00:34:29
Speaker
So you get like a nice time series and you can see when, you know, how the waves and water level are interacting to increase that original intensity and then you combine that with like a a geographic plot you know a map where you're showing the intensity you know in our case we're generally focused on new jersey so we'll have a little map of new jersey on the side and then we'll have locations picked out where we where we're running the forecast for these specific locations and then you do a little color coding so you can see like okay if you were to plot hurricane sandy Hurricane Sandy was much more intense in the top of the state, much less intense in the bottom of the state because it crossed through the state. So with the direction of the hurricane, that's how it worked out.
00:35:06
Speaker
Um, so then you'd see on that map, like, oh, look everywhere in the north is all like bright red or black or whatever, you know, however you're color coding it. And then down in the south, it's like, oh there's not really much intensity there. So you can see how the state, you know, both from the storm itself, having a spatial distribution of its intensity, and then you can get into level deeper.
00:35:27
Speaker
Beyond that, if you start bringing in beach parameters, which is the next step, it's not getting more complicated, but if you start bringing in beach parameters themselves, you get like really localized with your forecast. You can say, okay, here where we just had a nice big beach nourishment and our beaches are really big.
00:35:41
Speaker
You're not expecting a lot of, uh, uh, impacts and then right next to it because they didn't nourish there yet. And the beach is really degraded. we're expecting really bad impacts. So yeah, maps are helpful.
00:35:52
Speaker
So I think that's, that's I wanted Ian to talk a little bit about that because that's one of the things that we keep sidetracking him with. you know He wants to study the you know the the ecological the ecological dunes and look at the resilience of those dunes.
00:36:07
Speaker
And every time, unfortunately, Storms keep happening, right? So last last August, September, Ian's doing his research. He's preparing his proposal defense. And all of a sudden, Hurricanes Helene and Milton come along. And you know all of a sudden, it's, hey, let's run the storm erosion intensity forecast for the state of Florida. And just last week, Hurricane Aaron came along. And you know it's like, hey, let's run the storm erosion forecast for the state of New Jersey. And
00:36:39
Speaker
I think the thing that we've kind of definitely realized is that that simplicity in terms of communication, right? Being able to communicate your results in a way that resonates with your, I'll call it stakeholders, depending on whether it's like the state of New Jersey or a local community or ah resident, you know,
00:37:03
Speaker
you know i think ah I think that really is an important part because at the end of the day, research that's not utilized right just becomes a ah piece of paper that exists somewhere. But you know realistically, I think all of us need to be kind of focused on kind of what's going to make an impact, right like what's going to help people.
00:37:25
Speaker
I think that's kind of at least that's my perspective on it. right Yeah, I'm lucky with that work. I got to come in after all the you know, all the original script writing and and math was figured out for it.
00:37:38
Speaker
So all the all the hard technical stuff was done. And then I just had to take the results that used to just be a little text file and put it into something actually visual. So that was a little more fun. It's fun, but it's and it's but it's one of those things that I think is really, really, it's it's overlooked. And I think, you know, i mean, the core the the the core of engineers, along with a bunch of other people,
00:38:01
Speaker
um They put out a a very comprehensive document that describes nature-based solutions for flood mitigation, international guidelines for for nature-based solutions and flood mitigation, um probably four years ago now, three, four years ago, I can't remember.
00:38:22
Speaker
um you One of the chapters specifically looked at kind of I guess, needs or gaps. And, you know, one that was very clearly identified was sort of the education and outreach. It was, you know, um not not not communicating well, not archiving things, not taking the results of good projects and using them to inform kind of like future projects. And, you know, some of that comes down to,
00:38:49
Speaker
money in right how projects are funded. Oftentimes projects are funded to over a finite lifespan and you do a project and it's completed and who's paying for the follow-up monitoring and who's paying for the follow-up outreach related to that project. And I think you know, not to give a plug to, well, to give a plug because New Jersey Sea Grant sponsors this this podcast.
00:39:12
Speaker
um You know, programs like Sea Grant programs that are allowed to and are specifically focused on kind of outreach and education can be a way to, know, ah can be a way to continue or ah spread knowledge about those different projects that have have worked well. Yeah, nice nice visual aids make it, you know, instead of having a bunch of words on a slide that nobody's paying attention to, if you're trying to present to either a conference or just random people anywhere, if you just have one good picture that shows everything, you know,
00:39:49
Speaker
Pictures picture just says a thousand words, right? That's what they say. Yeah. Pictures worth a thousand words. So you actually, yeah you just actually hit on something that's really important. Talk about conferences and spreading, ah spreading the word about the great work that everybody's doing. So, um,
00:40:06
Speaker
Let's talk a little bit about conferences and kind of that professional development side of kind of like the student experience. So um i don't know, Ian, have you, I know the answer, but have you been to any conferences and maybe anything that you found particularly valuable about them or?
00:40:22
Speaker
So I've been to, you know, been a, I guess, regular at ASBPA since I started now, I've been to ocean sciences, the AGU conference. We went to that once.
00:40:34
Speaker
I went to a Esri user conference to learn some GIS yeah stuff. We went to Florida shore and beach. preservation association, we went to their tech conference after Helene and Milton to try and make some connections there and telling them about what work we were trying to do with those storms and also get some data from them to help ah help us move our own research forward in like a new geographic context. So as a student, one thing great about like everybody, obviously networking, like that's the biggest point of conferences, right, is the networking.
00:41:03
Speaker
But one really nice thing as a student when you never really know, like, what I'm doing make any sense? Like, is this is this something anybody wants? When you give a presentation or you have a poster or whatever, and then, you know, even if you don't know how many people are going to look at it, but then even if you get one person that's like, oh, this is really cool, like that's I'm super interested to hear about what you're doing. Like, I'd love to know more about it. And like when people are like, oh, that's really important, like that's something so people should be working on. Super cool. Like just getting that is like super valuable as a student to get that like, oh, like it matters. I'm not just doing nothing. You know, I'm not just doing some weird
00:41:38
Speaker
You know, I didn't just make something up super weird. It's like, this is people care about what I'm trying to work on, which is really nice. Definitely. And I think one of the things too, you kind of mentioned it.
00:41:50
Speaker
i' I've heard advice. Somebody once told me that the the least important presentation at a conference is your own. Right. And, you know, I was like, hmm. don't know exactly if I don't know if I agree with it exactly as a professor who has students that are trying to you know present their work and represent our university and and all of the all that.
00:42:10
Speaker
But from the aspect of, you know, really paying attention to what's going on around you and what everybody else is doing, all the all the really cool work and trying to find.
00:42:23
Speaker
you know the overlaps and um ways that you can work together. um i think that's a really valuable part of the conference experience. You mentioned the networking part of it, that's basically part of it.
00:42:36
Speaker
um And I think that's one thing that you know as advice from a professor to a student is just not to overlook you know, to, to, to keep your, to listen, like listening is sometimes more important than speaking.
00:42:49
Speaker
Right. So, um, I think that's, ah that's, that's some wise advice that I was once given. So, uh, to say, I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to attend the conference.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yes. So my very first conference was actually ASBPA last year. Um, And that was really exciting for me because um I've never been to a professional conference, um definitely not a coastal one. And it was just amazing to see like all the research that's going on, um all the things that people are presenting on, things that I didn't even know I'd be interested in.
00:43:26
Speaker
um i did not present at that conference, but I did present at a few conferences after that. I presented at um GERS 2024, Bays and Bayou's.
00:43:37
Speaker
And then earlier this year at YCSECA. um But I will be presenting a poster at ASBPA this year. But it's just really cool to see like all the research that that persons are doing.
00:43:50
Speaker
It's a fun way to to network and just get to see what's the state of things in terms of what what the knowledge, where we're at in Coastal, because I feel like Coastal is so young and there are certain things that just don't change, but then there's other things that we're just evolving on so often. And it's just great to see like all the stages that we're at with different things.
00:44:16
Speaker
I'm glad to hear you talk about the ASBPA conference. I think it's one of the best conferences, particularly for young, extremely inexperienced students in terms of trying to get in front of a professional organization and present your research. And you know we typically send a lot of our students to that conference. like Unfortunately, i actually missed last year's ASBPA conference because I was attending the ICCE conference in Rome like a few weeks after that. So it just didn't didn't work out. But I would say I probably attend 75% or more of the ASBPA conferences.
00:44:50
Speaker
The other thing I just wanted to kind of mention just from an acronym standpoint, the YCSECA conference, um it's something that we've talked about on previous episodes, but that's the Young young a Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference Americas.
00:45:05
Speaker
If I got that right, it's close. I'm close. If I didn't get it right, I got it close. um That's it. um That's one that is also really, really great for students. It's kind of an entirely student-run conference that's typically very low cost, um designed for, again, young students just kind of beginning their their careers. it's a it's a The students that I've sent there have had nothing but great things to say about it. So give them a little plug, give them a little love. you know I think it's definitely something that if you're a young student, it's definitely worthwhile
00:45:40
Speaker
attending. um So i guess kind of following up on the, I guess, the conference app. So you both have had experiences at conferences.
00:45:51
Speaker
Is there anything that you found, I guess, particularly valuable about the conference experience or, you know, meeting any meeting anyone that you found particularly interesting or valuable, or even like intimidating, like I'll share, like my personal experience, my first experience was
Coastal Conferences: Networking & Community
00:46:09
Speaker
an ASBPA conference. so I was doing my master's degree, ah was starting with Bob Dean at university of Florida. And he sent me out to a conference in Portland, um,
00:46:19
Speaker
So I was all the way kind of across the country. um And what he didn't tell me is is that he was sending me into sort of the hornet's nest. So there's sort of, for those of you who don't there used to be like sort of more of a historical like rivalry, like an East Coast, West Coast kind of rivalry, kind of, you know, yeah like it was very much, we talked about, Ian and I just talked about the Philadelphia, New York kind of rivalry. This is kind of like the coastal engineering version of that was East Coast, West Coast. so So he sends me out to the West Coast to present my research.
00:46:51
Speaker
And you know one of the first people that I encountered out on the West Coast was Bob Guza, who you is one of the greats of coastal engineering, just like, you know does has done amazing work that, you know and and I go out and I present something. And the first question that I get asked is by Bob Guzik. So just as if being asked the question wasn't enough, um he also happens to be, you know, a rather intimidating physical presence. He's just a ah a big guy and he was and very direct with his questions. And, um you know, I was so nervous ah that I was like, oh my God, I'm going screw this up. I'm going act, like I'm going to be, feel like an idiot in front of this, this, this great of coastal engineering. And,
00:47:34
Speaker
you know, you asked a question and I answered the question and, you know, afterwards had a chance to talk with him about it. And, you know, it was kind of um, having the chance to talk to him afterwards, it just kind of, um, made me realize that regardless of who you're speaking with or to that, even the the greats of like coastal engineering, you know, overall kind of very approachable and they're just, you know,
00:48:00
Speaker
human beings and it's like, you know, having a conversation with anybody else, but it was, it took like sort of a very interesting experience, right. In order for me to, to realize that. So it was kind of like, I credit that like actually for, i kind of looked at it like, okay, if I could handle that the first time I ever presented at a conference, I got asked a question by one of the greats of course. I'm like, all right. So he was interested in what I was speaking about, which, you know, I kind of took that as like, okay, you know, moving forward,
00:48:30
Speaker
Like, you know, like conferences are, you know, collaborative environments where, you know, everybody's trying to learn from everybody else. And so um from that moment on, it's kind of like i relaxed a little bit, you know, as intimidating ah as it was the first time, it just kind of made me realize.
00:48:46
Speaker
you know We're all in it kind of together and we're trying to like push the science and the engineering forward. And so that just that realization just for me kind of like reset my whole conference experience and just kind of made me not worry so much about what people were going to think or what people were going to say.
00:49:01
Speaker
you know It's all you know in for a common goal in terms of advancing the the science and engineering. So I don't know if you've had an experience like that or if you met anybody or you know It doesn't have to be at ah you know on the academic side. It could be a professional contact that you've made.
00:49:17
Speaker
But I don't know, Ian, if you had anybody or anything, any experience, I guess, that stands out at a conference? Put me on the spot. um It's, it's always hard to, ah for me, it's always hard to like pick out one thing, but definitely like I've just made lots of connections with people and it, you, you put a face to people instead of just, you know, reading some paper and you might see the same name pop up a few times, depending on what you're looking at.
00:49:42
Speaker
You, you, you finally put a face to it and it's like, oh, it's a real person. And then you can, it's like, then it, then you feel like you can actually talk to them. Right. It's not just. some random name on a piece of paper um that you're looking at on your computer. it's that There's a real person behind it and they have their own story and stuff they're interested in. And then, you know, if if you like their work, it might, you know, it's a great time to ask them. And as a PhD student, I've gotten to, you know, i met, you know, one of my ah one of my ah advisors for committee members, I mean, you know, at conferences, that's that's how I met them. So, and I think that's probably the case for almost
00:50:19
Speaker
lot of PhD students, if not everyone. Not my case. I think that's super cool.
00:50:25
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, it's, cool it's, it's really cool to, to make those connections at conferences. I don't know, tiha have you just presented or excuse me, attended the ASBPA conference for the first time last year, but have you, did you meet anybody in particular or have any experience at the conference that a set you on a path maybe?
00:50:44
Speaker
um I won't say particularly. um a ah felt intimidated at my first conference just because it's ASBPA so it was pretty large and then you have these seasoned professionals who were sitting in these rooms listening to persons talk and then asking these questions and I'm like would I be able to do that but then when you actually talk to them you realize that these are pretty chilled persons to talk to like everyone is so down to earth like it was it was just awesome like you'd be intimidated at first and then you hear them having a conversation or like
00:51:18
Speaker
if you're interested in something that someone presented in and you'd go up to them and it would just be like a really cool conversation. um so I won't be able to like name drop, but just the overall experiences, like it's it's great in that regard. Like you really get to, um as Ian was saying, put a face to some of the names that you've been reading and all of that. Yeah. and I think the important thing is too, it doesn't necessarily need to be you know, in the midst of a ah conference session where you've kind of meet somebody or ask those questions, right? Like, and I think that's, you know, but I think the important thing is just kind of, I think they can, I think conferences in particular can be really important, like professional development experiences, right? Even if the first time you go, you just sit and learn and listen, you know, understanding kind of the way that they work and the flow and,
00:52:08
Speaker
kind of you know what the you know appropriate way to kind of behave at a conference is. And yeah I think you know certain most organizations with their students and new professionals, chapters or groups, um you know it's it's ah it's a way to kind almost ah soften the blow in terms of like introduction to a conference, right? So like a lot of times there's different mixers and different events and kind of, um you know, you get to meet with other fellow young students and new professionals who in the same experience, or maybe they have one conference, you know, experience that you don't have. And so I think it's a great way to kind of share. I just want to add that it's also great for like internship opportunities and possibly even um job searches for short of college. Cause I remember
00:52:56
Speaker
Back to ASBP, there were like certain companies that were there. um There was like the Ed Kirk Research Lab. There were some private coastal companies and so, and like they were actively looking for persons who would be interested in like internships and things like that. So I feel like that's also one of the the pros of going to these conferences, just seeing like what organizations, what companies are are involved in coastal and how you can advance your career in that regard.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's that's that's a great point. i think I'll never forget I had a student who, at the time she was an undergraduate, this was right after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, and we had an undergraduate doing some really cool research looking at the impact of the storm to coastal structures.
00:53:42
Speaker
And she presented some of her work at ASBP as an undergraduate. and And think she was a junior at the time. And she came back And so she went to the conference in October of her junior year as an undergraduate.
00:53:56
Speaker
And she's like, oh, I met this great contact from the West Coast. Actually, it's a company out in Hawaii. And they're going to offer me an internship to work in the summer.
00:54:08
Speaker
And I was just like, wait a second. Like you figured out somehow how to work a conference into college. you know, uh, an opportunity to, to do work in the summer in Hawaii.
00:54:21
Speaker
And, you know, she went out and she had a great experience and guess still, I'm still shocked by it. i How does like a junior undergraduate have the confidence to be able to work that conversation into and internship in Hawaii? Um, so yes, internships, professional development contacts, like, um,
00:54:40
Speaker
all really important parts of conferences. So. I'll have to figure out the Hawaii thing, but ah right along with the networking is like, ah you start to feel more a part of like the coastal engineering community, like it's, it's, you know, because it's such a tight knit field, you see the same people at every conference. And even like, like me, i I don't think of myself as like, I'm not like the most like outgoing person. It's, you know, I'm not, ah I'm not the one who's like running up to strangers and be like, hi, are you doing? What do you know? It's like, I i'm I'm more like getting links through other people and then starting up. So because you start seeing the same people every time, it's like, you really, you warm up to everybody and it's like,
00:55:17
Speaker
go to one conference like i met uh you know i met a group people from like the army corps at the ocean sciences meeting and then the next asbpa we were at i was hanging out with the same people and then we've met you know people in the kind of new jersey new york philly area at asbpa conferences and nsbpa and stuff and then we do this beach suite last weekend and then same people are there at this asbpa beach suite thing so it's it's you you start to feel like you're a part of it because you know you start to know everybody and they know you which is nice That's another aspect of our field, which I think is very true. it is a smaller it is a smaller group. So it's not like if you're, a you know, as somebody who did his undergraduate in civil engineering and was a part of like ASCE,
00:56:01
Speaker
And that's such a broad, such a big group that it's just, you know, you can go to the same conferences year after year and never see the same people. It's just like that. It's just, that's just the way it is. But it is nice to go to conferences. And I think it's also nice to also...
00:56:17
Speaker
go to conferences with slightly different focuses. So like I'll go to ASPPA and I'll see coastal policy folks and coastal science and engineering folks, but then I'll go to restore America's estuaries.
00:56:28
Speaker
There'll be more ecologists there, but then I'll see some of the same people there. And then I might go to like an ASCE event and I'll see some coastal folks there. And so it's kind of, you know, you're able to kind of connect with that, that core group that kind of has those similar interests. Um,
00:56:46
Speaker
as you. So I think it's one of the things that makes our field, coastal engineering and science and management, you know, special is that you have those, you can develop those relationships and maintain those relationships. And, you know, in all honesty, as a, as a faculty member and a professor and somebody who's constantly searching for funding, those relationships matter as much as, you know, you know, there's all sorts of opportunities, some competitive, some less competitive, but it's relationships matter, right? Having,
00:57:17
Speaker
people know you and respect the work that you do is is invaluable in this field. Thank you for coming to our TED Talk.
00:57:28
Speaker
yeah I'll add one more thing that you said earlier, John, um is that you're intimidated by people asking you questions. and last conference I did was um the Coastal Summit of ASBPA in Washington, D.C.
00:57:43
Speaker
And some people were starting to ask me questions. And the questions were so specific. And I was like, I'm sorry, i don't and I don't know all the answers. One of the person asking the question was like, you know, If your presentation wasn't so good, nobody would have asked you a question. So he was like, it's good to actually have people ask you question because when you end, someone says, the modeator the moderator says, any questions? And if nobody says anything, that's when it's actually not good.
00:58:07
Speaker
And I was like, okay, fair enough. Like that's, that's a nice way to look at it. I felt like, so yeah, questions are good. Yeah. Questions are definitely ah sign of interest. That's the way, that's the way you look at it.
00:58:19
Speaker
like Exactly.
Advice for Aspiring Coastal Engineers
00:58:20
Speaker
you know Ian and Tashay, you both have had sort of this amazing experience so far, it sounds like, in coastal, in ocean engineering and kind of, again, just different ways of kind of getting to where you are, Tashay being a master student and Ian, you being a PhD student at this point.
00:58:39
Speaker
um One thing that we always want our listeners to to learn about is kind of, you know, what's what some good advice, you know, for people that are thinking about considering like the coastal field, whether they're undergraduates, whether they're graduate students, whether they're professionals that thinking about coming back to get a master's or a PhD, what kind of advice would you give people that want to do kind of what you're doing right now? So again, ian I'll start with you.
00:59:06
Speaker
So I would say just, you know, don't be afraid to just email people with, you know, you you don't think you have the qualifications. You don't think you're coming from the right place. It doesn't really matter. Like people want We want more people in the coastal field, right? so So it's exciting when people come from outside and they want to they want to join us and and and start learning and doing what we do. So I you know i came from mechanical engineering, which is still engineering, but you know it wasn't civil engineering. It wasn't environmental engineering. It was totally, really quite unrelated.
00:59:41
Speaker
And then I just applied it around and I emailed and emailed you and you reached back out to me and and that's that's how I'm here now, right? It's like something I didn't really I was trying it and I didn't really know that it would work. i didn't really expect it would work and it did.
00:59:55
Speaker
um Yes. and And don't be afraid to to change your career. It's exciting to learn new things. is Going back to school isn't is't ah is it not too bad. it's it's I mean, homework, you know, I could do without the homework, but it's also the only way to learn. So it's a catch 22 there. But yeah.
01:00:14
Speaker
but it's, I, it's, I've been having a great time. I don't, you know, obviously I do not regret coming to Coastal Engineering. I love it. um It's super cool work that we're doing. So just, just go for it.
01:00:26
Speaker
Great. That's, that's, that's great advice. And the advice to, to, to professors out there is don't be afraid to take people with different backgrounds, different disciplines, even mechanical engineers, like they can still be useful. Especially.
01:00:37
Speaker
Especially mechanical engineers. So, uh, to Shay, how about yourself? do you have any advice for, people wanting to get into coastal? Okay, so my advice would be, especially if you have the opportunity um to go to these coastal conferences, that's a great way to um get your toes wet in a sense and to kind of see what the world of coastal engineering has to offer.
01:01:02
Speaker
um I'd say if you can or you have the opportunity to do like coastal courses during your undergrad, um that would also give you an introduction. And then you can be able to decide if you like it or not.
01:01:15
Speaker
um And a third thing, which is something that we've had the experience with at our lab, um is to just get involved with the professors that that teach it. So, for example, we're doing some research that would require additional hands um to do field work, to do um equipment preparation and stuff like that, and then be able to you know get hands-on experience at any level. So if you are able to get involved on your campus with work that is going on, that's also a great way to kind of dip your toes to see if it is the path for you, which...
01:01:53
Speaker
I'm hoping it is. um But yeah, so just get involved. Don't be afraid to to reach out to people. Don't be afraid to try a new things. um And I'm sure that it's not for everyone, but the field welcomes everyone who's open. That's great advice. I think ah the idea of you know attending conferences and you know not being afraid to email folks and just kind of um not being afraid to switch career paths. I think at some point, I've told the story in the past, I think on the on the podcast, but I had been it suggested that I get into like hydrology and think more about like inland water bodies and not so much coastal engineering because there wasn't much of a future in coastal engineering and
01:02:38
Speaker
25 years after somebody gave that made me that advice and I chose to ignore it and just follow my passion and do what I was really interested in, you know I've had an amazing time you know in my career. And so i think that's kind of one thing i would share is you know if you're passionate about something, don't be afraid to pursue it. You know you can make you can make something of it if you you know pursue it.
01:03:04
Speaker
With that, we'd like to thank both of our guests for joining us today and and sharing a little bit about their research. We look forward to kind of seeing where you go in the future. As always, we want to thank our our sponsor, New Jersey Sea Grant, for sponsoring the the podcast.
01:03:18
Speaker
um There are a number of
Upcoming Coastal Conferences
01:03:20
Speaker
conferences coming up. So ah for those of you are out there looking to to attend some conferences learn more about coastal, there's the ASBPA National Coastal Conference, which this year is the 7th to tenth of October in Long Beach, California. I will be there this year.
01:03:34
Speaker
So hopefully if you go, I'll have an opportunity to to meet you there. We have the Coastal and Estuary Research Federation Biennial Conference, which is in Richmond, Virginia this year, November 9th to 13th.
01:03:51
Speaker
um It's a conference, unfortunately, I will not be going to, but there's a lot of great talks that are going to happen there. The Restore America's Estuaries has their tech transfer workshop in October, I think, 29th through 30th.
01:04:06
Speaker
in New Haven, Connecticut, I will be attending that one as well. For those of you that are more interested in the sort living shorelines aspects. And then finally, the ICCE, the International Conference on Coastal Engineering is coming to the US in Galveston, Texas in 2026. That's May of 2026, I believe.
01:04:28
Speaker
And the abstract submissions are open for that until October 1st. So um that's, for those of you who aren't aware, that's one of the biggest conferences specifically on engineering aspects of the coastal of coastal issues
01:04:47
Speaker
Thanks again for tuning in to Going Coastal. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Episodes drop the first Tuesday of every month. Ratings and reviews will help more professionals and ocean lovers find us. So if you do enjoy the podcast, make sure you drop us some stars. Let us know what you think.
01:05:03
Speaker
And lastly, if you want to partner with us or sponsor a future episode, we're always looking for opportunities to do that. So We'd love to share your brand and your story with our community. Don't be afraid to reach out and contact us at our email address, which is podcastgoingcoastal at gmail.com. And once again, thank you to our guests for joining us today. i look forward to hearing about where you go in the future. Thank you for having me.
01:05:29
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you guys. See you next month. Bye-bye.